


Tea

by Bat_and_Breakfast



Category: Holby City
Genre: Canon? What Canon?, Established Relationship, F/F, Prompt Fic, Weekly Berena Fix, happily, they live together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 09:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19885618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bat_and_Breakfast/pseuds/Bat_and_Breakfast
Summary: Short and silly one shot prompt fic for the weekly Berena fix. Features happy Serena & Bernie and a piece of political china.





	Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! Have a cup of tea. No angst, no canon. Just two happy awesome surgeons in love and a tea cup.
> 
> Thanks to @danceswithcows01 for the edit! :)

Finally home after a long and gruelling shift, Serena fails to get a response to her shouted greeting. After taking off her coat and shoes, she finds Bernie at the kitchen table, intently gazing at a cup sitting in front of her.

“Darling…” She once more tries to get the other woman’s attention. At last Bernie notices her standing almost right by her side.

“Oh, you’re home!” she says with a smile, still unable to stop glancing back at the cup. 

“Is everything all right, hun?” Serena asks, admittedly a bit concerned by Bernie’s peculiar behaviour. “Tea leaves’ spelling not up to your wishes?“ What is meant a joke, because neither of them would ever believe in such tomfoolery, is met with a frown.

“Actually I don’t know if it is ‘NHS’ or ‘borders’? They’re a bit smudged over there. ‘People’s vote’ and ‘EU’ are much clearer. “

“I’m sorry, Bernie, but you’ve lost me… what’s up with the NHS and borders?” 

“Cameron and Charlotte came by. They got me a present from their latest London shopping trip. Well, they told me explicitly that you’re to use it, too. So it’s really a present to both of us.” 

“I’m still at loss.” Serena tries to stay patient. They’ve been together long enough now for her to handle most of Bernie’s communication quirks.

“It’s a cup. They bought it at the British Museum. Had to, they told me.” Bernie picks up the cup and hands it towards Serena. It is a lovely tea cup, white china with delicate black lettering on the rim of the cup. There’s a matching saucer still sitting on the table. In addition to the lettering, the inside of the cup is painted all over with small blue and red scribbled words and symbols. There are bits of wet tea leaves stuck to the inside of the cup. Bernie stands up, slides behind Serena, takes her into her arms and looks over her shoulder at the cup.

“You see… the small bits of leaves on the words ‘peoples vote’ and ‘EU’ are much more distinctive than this blob of leaves over there. I think it’s more on ‘NHS’ than on ‘borders’, though that might be wishful thinking. I asked what we could change to make things better.” 

Serena squints at the lettering on the cup, badly missing her reading glasses. “See where the tea leaves remain to read the future,” she reads aloud.

“It’s a tasseography cup.” Bernie finally offers the missing piece of information Serena had been waiting for.

“Tasseography,” she repeats.

“The art of reading tea leaves. The cup is named UncertainTea and there are various phrases that were thrown around last year painted on the inside… like ‘Britain’, ‘no deal’, or ‘soft’.” 

“And ‘NHS’.” Serena finally understands.

“And ‘NHS’.” Bernie answers.

“It’s definitely on ‘NHS’.” Serena says with a look at the tea leaf blob in question.

“You’re sure?” Bernie leans even closer and squints at the cup again.

Bernie’s arms are around her waist, her breath noticeable upon Serena’s skin. She sighs and closes her eyes. Feels Bernie’s warmth seep through their clothes. She doesn’t want to keep reading tea leaves right now. They could brew another cup after she has taken Bernie to bed. Serena opens her eyes, focuses on the cup and before Bernie could protest, nudges the leaves squarely on NHS with her finger.

“I’m absolutely sure, darling.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Have a look at the tea cup if you want to!](https://www.brexitware.com/product-page-2/uncertaintea-cup-and-saucer)


End file.
